Years after two 30 foot prehistoric crocodiles are captured and killed in Maine, the local sheriff teams up with an EPA agent, a female Fish and Wildlife agent and a big game hunter, to kill four blood-thirsty offspring of... more &raquo the original killer crocs.&laquo less

Movie Reviews

Come on people lighten up

Dave. K | Staten Island, Ny | 02/05/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Looking around all I see are negative reviews for Lake Placid 2 and I have to wonder what was everyone expecting? While the original did get over with the audience it's not seen as a classic of the genre, but as an enjoyable movie. Did anyone really expect Lake Placid 2 to be some kind of classic? The budget is obviously very low and Sci-Fi Pictures was involved right there you should know what to expect.

I see so many reviews calling this the worst movie ever; come on people lighten up. Is Lake Placid 2 a bad movie? Hell yeah, but it's also a lot of fun. The cast and crew knew the kind of movie they were making and make a B-movie that isn't meant to be taken seriously. All the comedy and idiotic moments are intentional.

Anybody who has read my reviews knows I'm not the biggest fan of CGI; I don't like and I probably never will. But the CGI in Lake Placid 2 is the best. And by best I mean worst. It's always easy to spot the CGI. Unless used very little you can always spot it and that sort of takes me out of the movie, but here the CGI is so fake looking it just makes the movie more fun. The Crocodiles are CGI and they look like something from Playstation. And the CGI gore also looks like something you would see playing Playstation.

Remember those old super low budget movies where they would put a guy a monsters suit and have him run around chasing people? Well Lake Placid 2 is sort of like that only with the CGI. Every time one of the Crocodiles appears on screen it's damn hysterical. Normally I hate CGI, but in this case I loved it since it really makes the movie even funnier.

The screenplay was written by Todd Hurvitz & Howie Miller and yeah it was a silly screenplay filled with characters saying and doing the dumbest of things. But that was the point; these guys weren't trying to write a Crocodile version of Jaws. They were writing a silly B-movie.

Director David Flores keeps the movie moving at a silly pace and never attempts at making a serious movie. He knew what kind of movie this was and makes that movie. There is always something silly happening to keep things silly and fun.

The actors were mostly good, yes you read that right. The main cast all put in the performances they were meant to. They put in a silly and even slightly over the top performances. The actors weren't meant to play it straight at all and they knew this and don't attempt to. John Schneider as Sheriff Riley was a blast. It was quite clear he was enjoying himself and puts in the performance he was meant to. And does this guy not age? He can easily pass for his 30s. Sarah Lafleur as Emily also puts in a fun and campy performance as the love interest for the Sheriff.

Chad Collins as Scott Riley and Alicia Ziegler as Kerri play it a little more-straight and actually both gave fairly good performances. Let's face it they didn't have the best of material, but both do rather well and I would like to see them in a more serious movie to see what they have acting wise. Cloris Leachman and Sam McMurray round out the cast; both actors have been around for quite a while and McMurray is one of those guys you know by face, but not name and he also seems to be having a lot of fun in his role as Struthers.

Bottom line is this by no means is Lake Placid 2 a good movie. It's a bad movie sure, but it's also fun in how idiotic it was. The CGI was horrible and adds to silliness of the movie. Fans of low brow so bad its good cinema might find some entertainment out of this. Don't except a good a movie or a scary movie. It's a silly movie that works on how bad it is. Lake Placid 2 is the type of movie you watch and make fun of. Don't take it so seriously."

Ugh

Jack Storm | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 01/29/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Wow, this was a big disappointment. I happen to really like the first one, and this is nothing like it. Horrible CGI. I loath to even refer to it as acting. No suspense, no cheap scares, no halfway decent one liners. They don't even have consistency. First they decide it's to fast to outrun, then they decide hey, lets make a run for it! You've been warned, so if you waste your money on this gem, it's your own fault."

LAKE FLACID

Mark Turner | 02/20/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Granted, LAKE PLACID was not Oscar winning material. But at least it was entertaining and kept your interest, offering a twist on the tried and true formula of a town not wanting to admit they had a problem (via JAWS). There are days when I still pull out this movie to watch again, enjoying the back and forth between characters and the witty dialogue they share. Not the case this time around.

This movie is so blatantly made for TV that it reeks of all that is bad with sequels made for that medium. The only difference between that and this is that here they can offer a bit of T & A to spark interest. But all of that is predictable and uninteresting. As I watched two nubile young wannabe actresses (one of which offers the worst reading of written dialogue that I can recall), I felt like the croc featured in this film was taking over for Jason Voorhees, attempting to seek retribution and slutty teens involved in or preparing for sex.

The film begins with a huge gross out moment as the assistant to an EPA agent gets his arm bitten off and then his other are left behind in the pair's boat. The local sheriff, played well by actor John Schneider, is in the midst of cardboard cutout problems with his for the summer son (the child of divorced parents) when he gets a call to come in. When he arrives, he is confronted with the small amount of remains from the attack.

Along with his ex-girlfriend and game warden Emily (Sarah Lefleur) the trio set out to see what exactly is in the Maine lake nearby. Though uneaten, they do get into a confrontation with the croc resulting in his munching down their boat and them narrowly escaping to the shore.

Enter the great white hunter Struthers (Sam McMurray), a rich man with a joy for the hunt who has crossed paths with Emily before. Beside him is his trusted companion Ahmad (Joe Holt), a laughingly bad character that appears to be a man Friday to a hopeless bumbler, never quite sure of how to play the character. Is he Sudanese or is he Jamaican? He does end up with one of the few good moments in the film when he tells an ungrateful employer what he can do after years of being treated poorly.

The group gets help when Schneider calls his deputy to bring out a new boat and some explosives. The deputy makes it to them without incident but when they attempt to lure the beast in and rope him after tranquilizing him, it wakes and makes a meal of the deputy. The funny part is that no one seems to care or show signs of remorse at the loss of their friend. Within minutes they're trading jokes about what to do next.

While all this unfolds, we also have the story of Schneider's son Scott as he makes friends with the local teens. At least with the young lady teen, Kerri. The rest of the group are stereotypical hard nosed teens who want to prove to the city boy they can be as intimidating as...well...as something. Who knows what because they appear to be nothing but goofs that you know don't have a chance of making it to the final reel.

Also on hand is Cloris Leachman as the sister of the character played by Betty White in film one. She's just as nuts and helps the crocs by feeding them steroid injected meat and the occasional person or two. Why no one has noticed up to this point is anyone's guess.

There is nothing original at all about this film, even though most sequels tend to be mere repetitions of the first film. But this one doesn't even come off as a good parody of that one. No witty dialogue, uncaring characters, poorly done CGI effects throughout (even a plane landing on the lake is CGI!) all result in one terrible movie.

Don't waste your time here. Instead, rent or buy the first one. Hmm...then again if you watch this one first and THEN watch the original, you might wonder why the Academy didn't consider it for Oscar worthiness.

There is one good thing about this movie. It is so bad that I found myself laughing throughout. Amazing how a comedy like THE COMEBACKS fails to inspire laughter while this movie offers more in the first 30 minutes. "

Putrid in Every Way

Tim Janson | Michigan | 04/14/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"When Lake Placid came out in 1999 it was a bit of a surprise hit and better than it had a right to be, partly because it was a campy ode to monster movies of the 1950's. Still, it was not a film that I thought would have been worthy of generating a sequel, particularly so many years later. Lake Placid 2 originally premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel several months ago but has now been released on DVD in an unrated version. More on that in a moment.

Once again were back at the quaint Maine setting and the serene lake where the first film took place. John Schneider is Sheriff Riley, living with his teenaged son Scott (Chad Collins). I have to say that Schneider looks very good. With his hair longer, he looks almost as young as he did in his Dukes of Hazzard days, and much younger than he did in Smallville. Unfortunately Schneider seems to know he's in a bit of a clunker here and doesn't generate a lot of electricity for a guy in the lead role.

The plot in Lake Placid is pretty identical to the first film with just new characters: Small town sheriff, cute co-star Emily(Lefleur) who is an agent of the Fish & Wildlife department, and another crazy old hag. This time its scary looking Cloris Leachman playing Sadie Bickerman, the sister of Betty White's character from the original film. With two Mary Tyler Moore show alums used so far, who's on tap for Lake Placid 3, Valerie Harper?

Anyway, after the first crocodile attack, Riley mobilizes his, um, deputy to begin a search of the lake along with Emily who is apparently an old flame but that's never complexly explained. Their search is interrupted by the appearance of a big game hunter named Struthers and his assistant Ahmad who've come to kill the beast. Meanwhile, Scott and his friends have picked that day to go swimming in the lake and I'm sure you can guess what happens to most of them.

So what makes the DVD unrated? A little swearing and some topless girls. Granted, the girls are damn hot but they are killed very quickly. Honestly there's about 90 seconds of material...maybe...which make the movie "unrated" over what was shown on TV. The CGI is typical of a Sci-Fi channel film...in other words...bad. I've seen documentaries on the Discovery Channel, which had better CGI effects than this film. There's just no believing that the croc is interacting with the actors at any time. Making matters worse is the actors themselves to a weak job in making the scenes believable. There are several occasions where the actors are within arm's reach of the cros but you'd think they were standing close to a poodle rather than a man-eating animal.

I don't mind a film being bad if it at least has a campy quality to this that Lake Placid did not. Betty White's foul-mouthed character was a scream...Cloris Leachman's character just makes you want to scream in terror. The DVD does come with two VERY short featurettes, each only about four minutes in length, adding little value to the DVD This could have been much better!"

SyFy Movies Ain't All That Bad!

Billy Ray Guthrie | Gadsden, AL United States | 12/07/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I once decried all those quickie SyFy (nee Sci-Fi) movies. The overnight-written scripts, the over-the-weekend CGI effects, the second/third/fourth tier actors. Not sophisticated enough for erudite and discerning me. However, I found myself always tuning in to "the most dangerous night on television" to see the next big threat bested by a small gutsy band (hero, heroine, and several extras to be eaten/destroyed/immolated, etc). Why? As one of those Vietnam era vets, I cherished my weekends at the local drive-in in the 60's and 70's where, oddly enough, the same type of movies played. Back then it was men in rubber monster suits demolishing miniature sets, or men in rubber alien costumes carrying away beautiful kicking blonds, or men in rubber . . . well, you get the point. So, does a movie like "Lake Placid 2" remind me of my youth, or does it give me one more Saturday night to throw popcorn and laugh at the screen? Doesn't matter. I love this movie for the little pleasure it gives. Like hearing your favorite Christmas carol once a year. You roll your eyes and think "not that old song again," and when no one is looking you smile and sing along."